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is there for another reason. There are 3 options to set fast boot on ASrock motherboards, and fastest one disables "entering bios"... so, you can't access bios unless you clear CMOS or through that specific option in AXTU.Reply

I looked at the Realtek website and the feature list for each chip but was unable to determine why one is better other than the power saving. It sounds like "The ASUS gives us another USB 3.0 controller, the ALC892 audio codec and the 8111F NIC - in turn, the ASRock board gives an ASMedia USB 3.0 controller, the better ALC898 audio codec but the 8111E NIC" is saying that the E is crap, but I might be reading into it too much.Reply

"Firstly, the amount of components on the top left of the motherboard is insane." This and the following statements are completely wrong. The extra components are likely tuned values of capacitors, resistors and ferrite beads intended to soften clock edges (reducing EMI) and improve high speed stability. As an engineer handling moderate-speed (sub-1GHz) clocks I can say with authority that these components are likely critical to the board's stability and performance. To say that having fewer components helps overclocking is pretty ignorant. /end rant.Reply

Most of those will be VRM related components. The amount of decoupling that needs to be used depends on the circuit. Generally, better VRM controllers and FETs need fewer output capacitors. The amount of surrounding circuitry for pulling legs of the buck controller down or up varies also - some buck controllers don't need a lot of external hardware to function.Reply

I wish there were high end FM1-2 motherboards that include more than the standard 6-7 SATA ports. For a HTPC/storage solution with lower power consumption than my current P45/Q6600 setup, having to go really high end Z77 or similar in order to get to the 9-10 SATA port cards, or buying separate (expensive) sata controllers is not great.Reply

Don't worry g, you are not alone - you are correct.It's called AMD fanboyism - and the marketing PR team decided so long as they hack out the insane non workable boards, the amd fanboys will buy them, telling themselves all is well in fanboyville.Reply

Thanks for these tips! I love the tip about checking where the model is in the store. I just finished reading another article that has some more research based tips about making sure you get the best big ticket items for you, which I also found useful. website:[socanpower,ca]Thanks again and happy shopping! Power supply Australia!Reply

How is 12 sec a fast boot time?I have a cheap Medion PC which also has 12 seconds from power switch to boot menu (the one loaded from the boot sector).2 seconds is fast. (my previous Asus netbook had such boot/POST times)

But kudos for actually measuring this usually neglected property.

PS: For more accurate measuring configure the boot loader to present a menu. Or even beep (should be trivial with GRUB). Also recording the measurement on video should make it easier to read the timings)Reply

Combining DVI-D with D-sub isn't going to work since the D-sub is supposed to be usable with the HDMI and DVI-D for triple monitor/Eyefinity support. (While some dislike D-sub for these purposes because of the quality loss due to the D-A-D conversion steps it's still fairly popular because many monitors still have D-sub ports but lack Displayport and they can't be bothered spending for an active converter to get HDMI/DVI from the Displayport.)Reply